This little 4 year sized Family Crew Neck sat for quite a while because I didn’t know how to do the sleeves.
The colour fade yarn was great. I had already bought a second ball to do the sleeves.
I wound off the lime green, yellow and into the orange of the second ball of yarn.
I wound up all the orange into a separate ball. Then, I wound off some of that orange ball to make 2 equal sized balls. I knit one sleeve and then the other until the length of the orange in the sleeve was as close as I could get it to the body.
Then I did the same with the red and then again with the purple.
Yes, it was time-consuming, but I’m really happy with the result.
This is where knitting the Family Crew Neck or any top down knit comes into its own.
As it became increasingly obvious I would be very close on the amount of yarn I had left, I took some time to sort through my priorities. I did need the body to be long enough. I could deal with a sleeve modification.
So, I knit the sleeves to just before the cuffs and broke the yarn. If I ran out of yarn, I could rip them back to make them 3/4 length.
Then, I knit the body to the bottom border. I decided a split hem would serve me best at this point. I worked the front panel of the split hem. Not as long as I would like but the minimum amount. Broke the yarn again.
I’m sure you can see the theme here: knit, look at the ball of yarn I have left, work some more, stare harder at the little ball, make a decision and knit some more.
I have definitely dug myself into a big hole with all of my WIPs. It’s a somewhat comfortable hole since I am sitting on a pile of knitting but I’m overwhelmed and discouraged.
It’s was a bad sign when I had to take the needle tips off of this project to knit something else. This is a Family Crew Neck for my grandson. Part of my procrastinating is that I’m not at all sure what to do with the sleeves. I have a second ball of this yarn for the sleeves but I’m wondering how to do the stripes on the sleeves so that they sort of match the body. Some more thinking is needed.
I grabbed the needles from that project to do an Any Gauge Raglan Pullover because I’m running a class right now and thought I should knit along with my students. I encouraged them to knit with worsted weight yarn or chunky yarn so they could get their pullovers done over the 6 weeks. I, of course, am knitting mine in fingering weight yarn. I feel like I am knitting furiously and getting nowhere. Sigh, I know. What was I thinking?!
Then there is the blog which you have been reading. I have wanted a Family Crew Neck for some time. I will be getting back to that soon. I have so much more to tell you about getting a good fit with your raglan.
You would think that three sweaters is enough to keep me busy. Then I cast on a hat. I knit the whole hat on the wrong size needle, ran out of yarn, pulled it out and am now on the redo with the correct needle. Not much more to say about that!
Am I finished? Apparently not.
For the month of February I am teaching a sock class. My first time sock students are knitting boot socks in worsted weight yarn. They will have a pair of socks done by the end of the month. I will, maybe, have one sock done past the heel with my sock yarn.
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? I hope you are in better control of your knitting. Cheers, Deb
What if … the raglan markers on your Top Down sweater were only a guideline for the size of your sleeve and not the exact size of the sleeve?
“Why don’t you knit sweaters for yourself?” I have asked this question of a lot of knitters. The answer, quite often, is that the sleeves never fit. A lot of knitting pattern sizes are based primarily on the measurement around your bust. If your bust measurement and your arm measurement don’t agree with the size chart the designer is using, then you are not getting a good fit.
This is one of the problems I wanted to solve in the adult sizes of my series of Any Gauge Raglan patterns. I have written these patterns for one person at a time – you. You don’t have to compare yourself to a size chart.
In these patterns, you take your bust measurement and arm measurement with a tape measure, and, after converting to the number of stitches, make the raglan yoke to these measurements (Bust + Arm + Arm). Yes, when you finish the yoke,it would fit you like a second skin.
Then you put the exact number of stitches for your arm on spare yarn for your sleeve.
Here is the bottom of my Family Crew Neck yoke with one set of sleeve stitches on spare (red) yarn.
My sleeve stitches on the spare yarn are inside the raglan markers.
In this case my sleeve stitches are 6 sts narrower (1.25″ narrower) than where the raglan markers would indicate. Whether the sleeve stitches end up inside or outside the raglan markers depends on where the markers are set up in the neckline and the size of your arm, of course.
But it fits like a second skin? How is that going to work?
Wait, there’s more. Cast on the number of stitches you need for the amount of ease you want on the body. It could be anywhere between 4″- 7″ or even more, if you wish. Cast on 1/2 the ease at one underarm and the other 1/2 at the other underarm.
Now this sweater body has been knit to your specific measurements at the bust and arm. Ease has been added. This sweater body will fit you and only you.
Twist stitch patterns are perfect for adding into a sweater. They don’t affect your stitch count so you can just plug them anywhere you want. I put this pattern down the middle of the front of this top down pullover. I will also add this pattern to each side of the body. I might even add them into my cuffs. Why not? I just can’t get enough of them.
Twisted stitches are a two stitch cable without the cable needle. Don’t you love that!
There are parts of sweater knitting that I enjoy over others. Settling in to knit a raglan yoke is one of the most enjoyable parts of the sweater for me. I love keeping track of the increases, seeing it get bigger and bigger, wider and wider, knowing it’s going to be so great.
Both of my Family Crew Neck sweaters are progressing well. The child size 4 is way ahead.
The colouring of the yarn is a great incentive to keep going. This is Maravilla by Katia, a wool & acrylic blend.
My navy version (Shelridge Yarns, W4 worsted, navy) is coming along. The short rows are done here. I was knitting on a train trip to Ottawa. Perfect knitting conditions: travel mug of tea, audio book and ear buds, hours of quiet knitting time.
Now I’m ready to really go for it. I will be introducing a pattern into the front 20 stitches between the ends of the short rows. Fun, fun, fun. Isn’t knitting just the greatest!
This will be my first sweater of 2024 and I am so excited to get started. If you want to knit along with me, the Family Crew Neck is on ravely. I am going to make videos for most of the sections of the sweater so you can see how this pattern works. It’s an Any Gauge pattern so I don’t know what yarn or what size you are knitting, that was the challenge of writing this pattern.
I am going to knit a 4 year old size for my grandson and an adult size for myself. I had knit one for my son-in-law, my grandson (both in the photo), one for my daughter-in-law (also in photo), and one for my daughter. I didn’t knit one for myself!!! It’s obviously time.
This is a longish post. Getting started always takes a bit of time. Hang on, there are videos and photos of the Cast On for both sizes.
Here we go. Because this pattern is for Any Gauge of yarn, you do have to do some math. Sorry, but there is no avoiding it. You need your gauge (# of sts in 1″) and a couple more numbers. Nothing your calculator can’t handle.
Here is my cast on. Gauge is DK weight yarn (5.5 sts = 1″), 4 year old size with 5″ Back of Neck (BofN).
Yes, there are a lot of Front sts, that’s totally correct. The extra Front sts will form a dropped front to the crewneck.
Here is my cast on for an adult size in worsted weight yarn (gauge is 5 sts = 1″) with an 8″ Back of Neck.
And now, how can you cast on when you will be beginning with the neck band and it needs to go over your head easily? I learned this from Cat Bourdhi and now use it all the time.
My goal this year was to knit fingering weight garments. I’m finding it a slow go. So this is a short post to celebrate. I’m so happy to have it finished.
This is my first one. A vest version of the Build A Bigger V. There are fewer changes for the vest than I had thought at first. The biggest change is no sleeves, of course, so the final bit was knitting out to the sides to get the correct fit around the body.
It fits well, it’s light weight and did I mention, it’s Done.
I’m so excited. I just had to show you (over and over again, apparently).
Now it’s time to finish up some small things. They are soooo satisfying after finishing a bigger project.
Are you busy with small knitting or longer projects? I hope it’s going well.
As I have been knitting away on my vest version of the Build A Bigger V cardigan I have been thinking about the armhole. They are rather a big deal when knitting a sleeveless garment, right?
My other concern was getting some extra bust width on the front. Short rows to the rescue. The mods pages for the cardigan has instructions for short rows to make an A-line cardigan. I used the same idea except for where I began my short rows.
I want the extra width to begin high up so I get an outward slant to the line from the shoulder. High on the front (the top pine) and lower on the back (lower pin).
I worked the short rows with 2 ridges in between. I think it worked.
Deb Gemmell: Top Down, Gauge Free and more 